FG SHOULD DECLARE HIJRAH DAY NEXT WEEK

6^th September, 2018

PRESS RELEASE:

DECLARE HIJRAH DAY NEXT WEEK

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FG) to declare Tuesday 11th September, 2018 as a public holiday in recognition of the first day of the Islamic calendar for the year 1440 AH (i.e. 1st Muharram, 1440 After Hijrah).




In a reminder statement signed by the director of the human rights organization, Professor Ishaq Akintola on Thursday, 6th September, 2018, MURIC contended that FG has been giving Nigerian Christians their own 1st January while ignoring the Muslims’ 1st Muharram. This, according to the group, is not fair.

“We still stand by our demand for the declaration of 1^st Muharram as Hijrah Day. We remind FG of our press statement issued on January 3^rd 2018 in which we called attention to FG’s declaration of 1^st January every year as holiday for Nigerian Christians. We demanded recognition for 1^st Muharram of every year for Muslims. It must be emphasized that Islamic organizations (not MURIC alone) have been making this demand through petitions and appeals dating back to the 60s but successive administrations have turned the deaf ear to their pleas.  

“Today’s reminder serves as a notice for the approach of 1^st Muharram, 1440 AH which corresponds to Tuesday, 11^th September (next week). Today is 26^th Dhul Hijjah. Next Monday is 30^th Dhul Hijjah (i.e. last day of 1439 AH) while the following day, Tuesday is 1^st Muharram, 1440 AH i.e. the first day of the Islamic calendar.

“However, FG still needs to consult the leadership of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) for the confirmation of the date. MURIC has no mandate to identify any particular day. That power rests with the NSCIA. Our concern stops at spreading the Muslim liberation theology and sustaining the emancipation struggle until freedom is actualized.

   

“We demand parity. If it is true that Nigeria is not for any particular religion; if it is also true that FG has been declaring 1^st January of every year which is the 1^st day of the Christian year as holiday for decades; then FG as the father of all must recognize 1^st Muharram as the first day of the Islamic year. A good and responsible father must treat his children equally. As it stands today, the holidays are tilted in favour of Christians. Muslims are marginalized. MURIC rejects this lopsided arrangement. It cannot forge unity. Neither can it guarrantee peace. It is only equal rights and justice that can ensure lasting peace.

“1^st January is a Westo-Christian day and its recognition by FG is one of the reasons we allege that Nigeria is heavily Christianised. We want 1^st Muharram of every year to be declared for Muslims too. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. FG must not be partial. Muslims have been making this demand for years but FG keeps ignoring them.

“What does this portend? Is FG telling us that Muslims do not matter in the scheme of things? Regime after regime turns deaf ears to our cries. Is it only violence and demonstrations that FG understands? We remind FG that conscious and deliberate peace-making is cheaper than running up and down in search of weapons to defeat insurgents.

“1st January is from the Gregorian calendar and the latter is a product of gymnastic make-belief and historic hocus-pocus that the British Christian colonialists imposed on Nigerian Muslims. This was after forcefully supplanting the Islamic calendar which had been in use in this country for 800 years before the advent of the British. It provides ample evidence of religious segregation and spiritual apartheid.


“For the sake of microscopic clarity, MURIC is not asking for the cancelation of 1st January whether it is in honour of Janus the Roman god of gates or for Ogun the Yoruba god of iron. Neither are we asking because the Islamic hijrah calendar is divine (Qur’an 9:36; 2:189; 10:5 and 17:12). We have no intention of taking what belongs to the Christians from them. Let the Christians continue to enjoy what they have been enjoying but give the Muslims their own too. That is fairness. All we are saying: Give Us Hijrah Day!


“A mental calculation of the total number of holidays enjoyed in Nigeria shows that they are eight (8): Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Id al-Kabir, Id al-Fitr and Maulud an-Nabiyy. Five (5) of the eight holidays belong to Christians (Christmas Day, Boxing Day, 1st January, Good Friday and Easter Monday).


“Only three (3) holidays belong to Muslims, viz, Id al-Kabir, Id al-Fitr and Maulud an-Nabiyy. Five to three is a wide margin in a multi religious social contract. FG must work towards closing that gap in the interest of peace and harmony. Therefore, FG should give the Muslims 1st Muharram.This will bring the number of holidays to be enjoyed by Muslims to four while Christians still continue to enjoy five. Is this too much to ask?

“There is no gainsaying that the perpetual denial, deprivation, marginalization and stigmatization being suffered by Muslims have led to uprisings at one time or another. It may not be out of place to add that the ongoing insurgency in the North East is not unconnected with the pains being suffered by Muslims around the country.

“Permit us, therefore, to postulate that the declaration of every first day of the Islamic year as a holiday is one of the steps that FG should take towards deradicalisation. It will send a strong message to Sambisa that FG is addressing some of the grudges mentioned by Muslims. It may eventually lead to the surrender of large numbers of insurgents. It can be used by liberal Muslims to soften the hearts of elements of the extreme left. This is how nations seeking genuine integration win wars and not ordinary battles.

In summary, we remind FG that Nigerian Christians enjoy five different holidays while their Muslim counterparts have three only. In the spirit of fairness, equity and justice, FG needs to allow the dividends of democracy to reach Nigerian Muslims too by giving them 1^st Muharram as holiday. This will only bring Muslim holidays to four while Christians continue to enjoy five. Next Tuesday, 11^th September, 2018 (and every first day of the Islamic year) should therefore be declared a public holiday. 

Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)

MURIC REJECTS UK STAND ON LOOTED FUNDS

3^rd September, 2018

PRESS RELEASE:

MURIC REJECTS UK STAND ON LOOTED FUNDS

The United Kingdom (UK) has revealed that it is reluctant to return Nigeria’s looted funds because it cannot trust the country with such funds if returned. This was disclosed by a Queen’s Counsel, Mr. Philip Hackett, while speaking on the theme: ‘Institutionalising the War against Corruption – New Approaches to Assets Tracing and Recovery’, at the Annual General Conference of the NBA in Abuja on Wednesday, 29^th August, 2018.

Reacting to the UK’s position, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) described it as escapist, ridiculous and unjust.

“There is no basis whatsoever for Britain to make such a claim. The main question is: who owns the money? Once it is established that the funds belong to the Federal Government of Nigeria, UK has no excuse holding on to it, talk less of pronouncing conditionalities. Britain cannot be keeping Nigeria’s money. Nigeria is not a land of morons. On the contrary, we are among the most intelligent people in the world.

“Britain is asking us for more transparency. That question might have been relevant in the days of corrupt leadership. Anyone who is serious about refunding money should do so now that we have a transparent and credible leader.

“That excuse is anachronistic and irrelevant in Buhari’s Nigeria. Buhari has made a huge difference and Western countries which have no hidden agenda should reciprocate. Any country that still holds on to stolen funds should be seen as either a thieving nation itself or an accomplice. Why ask for more transparency when we already have a world acclaimed anti-corruption leader as president? It is simply escapist. UK’s reservation is an afterthought, mischievous and irresponsible. Britain has its own agenda. Its economy is benefiting from Nigeria’s looted funds and it wants this to continue.

It is on record that returned money has been used wisely by the Buhari administration. An example is the Abacha loot which was recently returned by Switzerland and shared among poor Nigerians. The $322 million Abacha loot was disbursed through Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) to 302,000 poor households in 19 states of Nigeria in July 2008. It shows that the present administration can be trusted to use returned money wisely and transparently.

“Now we understand the logic. Western nations have been using the endemic corruption in some African countries as an excuse for keeping money stolen from those countries in their own vaults. Also, it is becoming clear now that the repeated allegation by Western countries that there is still widespread corruption in Nigeria under Buhari is aimed at the same objective. They are using it as an excuse to keep our looted funds in foreign vaults ad infinitum. Nigeria’s money has only moved from one individual and unpatriotic thief to a corporate thief and a rogue nation.

“Yes, we affirm clearly, emphatically and unequivocally that Western nations who refuse to repatriate money looted from developing countries are rogue nations. They are living on the sweat of weaker countries. They have a heavy moral burden to carry”.

MURIC knocked Britain for its attitude on funds looted from Nigeria. “Britain’s attitude to looted funds from Nigeria exposes the underbelly of capitalism. It implies that capitalism is blind to morality. It does not matter where money comes from. Capitalists must grab it from left, right and centre. It does not matter if they step on the dead bodies of millions of poor people of the oppressed nations of the world to get the money. Capitalism is devoid of all human feelings. Capitalism has no veins, no vessels, no blood. Capitalism is like dry wood.

“Britain’s attitude to Nigeria’s looted funds also makes a mockery of democracy. Is this what the West calls democracy? Is it about freedom to sit on looted funds hiding under ludicrous excuses? Is democracy about the freedom to move illegal money from poor nations to powerful countries? If that is true, then democracy is the most pernicious and most inhuman ideology in the world. The decision to continue sitting on our money is impunity of the highest order. Where is Britain’s morality?

“How many looters take their money to communist or Islamic states? How much of Nigeria’s money is in Russia? How much is in China? How many looters have taken their money to Saudi Arabia or Iran? Shame on capitalism and democracy.

“It is an insult to say that Nigeria cannot be trusted with looted funds if returned. The UK government should answer this question: If Mr. A’s house is burgled and the stolen items are traced to Mr. B’s house, has Mr. B any moral or legal right to ask Mr. A that he must first guarantee that he would not allow his house to be burgled again before releasing his stolen items to him? What do you call Mr. B after all said and done?

“Isn’t there some law against receiving stolen item in Britain? We love to remind the UK that we have such a law here in Nigeria in case Britain forgets. The paradox lies in the fact that the law on receivers of stolen items is a legacy from Britain. So who did this to UK? Do we call it colonial amnesia? How did morality go haywire in the Queen’s own land?

“UK is using money looted from Nigeria to finance its economy at the expense of Nigeria. In short, all the noise about the UK supporting the fight against corruption in Nigeria is meaningless as long as the same UK refuses to reprtriate stolen funds. It also means UK is encouraging graft”.

MURIC also taunted Britain over its reluctance to vomit Nigeria’s money. “By the way, what is Britain arguing about? Switzerland coughed out $322 million in July this year. The United States has pledged to return $500 million very soon. What is Britain ready to give? Is the UK holier than the US and Switzerland put together?

“If UK cannot trust us to use repartriated funds wisely, we also cannot trust Britain with our money. It is our money and our money is our money, not Britain’s. This is the same colonialist who exploited Nigeria for more than a hundred years. What did we gain at the end? Britain asked us to close our eyes and pray. By the time we opened our eyes, our land was gone. Our culture was in tatters. How can we trust such people again particularly with our money?

“For the avoidance of doubts, Africans did not have to wait for the common law to be imported from Britain before demonizing and criminalizing the concept of received stolen goods. A popular Yoruba adage says ‘Eni ti o gbe epo laja nikan ko ni ole, eni ti to gba lowo re gan, ole ni’, i.e. the man who steals palm oil from the ceiling is not the only thief, his accomplice who stood below and helped him to collect it from the ceiling is also a thief because without him the thief who climbed the ceiling would have failed in his devilish mission.

“Used in the context of this argument, Britain as well as other Western nations who receive looted funds from Nigeria and other poor nations are as guilty as those who stole the money from their countries. Nigerian looters were in the ceiling siphoning their country’s wealth into big bags, Britain and other receivers of looted money were on the ground below them giving the stolen funds the much needed soft landing.

“As we draw the curtain, we aver that Nigeria may have to approach the International Court of Justice on this matter. Diplomacy is sometimes a potent agent of procrastination. Let us explore the legal angle parri passu.  We charge our leading lawyers, renowned human rights activists and the Nigerian civil society to take up the struggle. Britain and other countries who are yet to repatriate Nigeria’s looted funds should be taken to international courts for arbitration. Let the world adjudicate.

“We invite Britain and other countries still keeping Nigeria’s looted funds to expedite action on its repatriation. Nigerians are not imbeciles whose money must be managed for them by ‘clever’ foreigners. We demand unconditional respect for our country. Nigerians are among the best of the best in the world.

Professor Ishaq Akintola,

Director,

Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC)